Pat Utomi is being celebrated for his 50th birthday. The author has known and admired Pat for over two decades for his prolific scholarship and contributions to public policy issues in Nigeria. Pat burst onto the public scene in the 1980s through his newspaper contributions. When they met, Pat had already accomplished much at a young age through his business and government work. Their relationship grew through collaborating in the struggle against military dictatorship in Nigeria. Pat led groups like Concerned Professionals that were pivotal in the movement for change. The author continues to be inspired by Pat's public policy activism, innovative thinking, and institution building. He hopes Pat will take on a leadership mantle in Nigeria which lacks capable leaders.

1. In Celebration of Excellence in Scholarship and Public
Policy Activism
By
Kayode Fayemi
I have quietly admired Pat Utomi for the better part of the last two decades. It was
therefore a pleasure and a delight when my brother and friend, Chido Nwakanma
informed me about Pat’s 50th birthday and asked if I would like to do a 400-word
tribute. Although caught in the topsy-turvy world of politics with hardly anytime to
write these days, I jumped at Chido’s request because Pat is a fitting exemplar of
Nigeria’s rarefied tribe of scholar-activists fully deserving of public approbation, if
only to demonstrate the possibilities and talents this nation is endowed with.
I knew of Pat before I met him. No avid newspaper reader in Nigeria’s intellectually
robust climes of the 1980s could be oblivious of Pat’s prolific contributions after he
burst unto the public scene. You do not necessarily have to agree with him, and most
times I never did, but the sheer profundity of his scholarship and the relevance of his
take on public policy issues endeared him to many. When I eventually met Pat, again
through my friend, Chido Nwakanma after he joined Pat’s Patike Communications in
1988 (?), I was awed by the fact that he had packed so much into so short a sojourn on
earth. In addition to owning Patike Communications, he had already served as
Special Assistant to Nigeria’s second republic Vice President and was at the time
Deputy Managing Director of Volkswagen Nigeria Ltd and he was only just 32!
Afterwards, our paths continued to cross at several conferences in different places in
the world – particularly in the United States and Europe as we waged the struggle
against military dictatorship in our country. It was during this period that my respect
and admiration for Pat grew immensely. It was a period that separated genuine
patriots from opportunistic flagwavers. Some who used to upbraid Pat for his petty
bourgeois predilections were either quietly supping at the dinner tables of the dictators
or busy providing intellectual justification for the reign of terror in our land. It was
then that he led others to start Concerned Professionals – that key body of
professionals that intervened so a-typically in the struggle for change in our land.
My return to Nigeria in the post-military struggle has further heightened my
admiration for Pat, this time because of his public policy activism, uncluttered
thinking and passion for innovation. As a mark of that admiration, it was no surprise
that when I decided to do a public presentation of my new book, Out of the Shadows,
it was to Pat that I turned to help direct the event, which he excellently piloted.
Although he is fully back to his first love as an academic, not for Pat the sterile
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2. scholarship of an ivory tower. His fingers are in many pies. He is a banker, journalist,
broadcaster, public policy activist, intellectual pugilist, freedom fighter - you name it.
Above all, he remains a major institution builder and it is in this final respect that I
hope he will not hesitate to pick up the mantle of leadership in a land so devoid of
capable leaders.
It is a distinct pleasure for me to join several others in celebrating this accomplished
scholar, irreverent entrepreneur, exceptional teacher and mentor, democracy agitator
and public policy activist par excellence. Happy birthday, Brother Pat – may your
tribe continue to grow in our country.
Dr Kayode Fayemi was until recently Director of the Centre for Democracy &
Development.
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